1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to combustion product reduction devices, and more particularly to air ionization structures useful to produce ozone into the inlet of an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In its simplest expression the power output of a fossil fuel engine depends on the total mass flow of the reagents of combustion. Since the reaction typically includes one reagent carried as fuel, in the form of a liquid, such as gasolene, diesel fuel or other hydrocarbon derivative (including propane, natural gas, methanol products, and the like) it is the delivery of the other reagent, air, that forms the constraint on the stochiometric mass of the reagents. Accordingly, devices for enhancing the mass intake of ambient air into an internal combustion engine have had extensive development attention in the past.
Thus, for example, turbine driven compressors turbochargers!, shaft-driven compressors superchargers!, intake geometry, and other, similar techniques have been developed in the past, all with the purpose to increase the intake volume or mass. At the same time fuel delivery systems have been improved, including various forms of injection arrangements for maximum power.
Along with these developments, techniques have been devised to introduce catalyst traces into the intake flow such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,566 to Carroll, et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,483 to Robinson. While suitable for the purposes intended each of the foregoing examples introduces a further consumable, like diluted platinum chloride in the Carroll patent, to the combustion process along with the inherent replenishment tasks. Moreover, catalytic fractioning of the hydrocarbon molecule, while an effective mechanism for increasing the specific energy output of the fuel, fails to correct the typical deficit of the atmospheric reagent and the consequent emissions of incomplete combustion products. As result the primary concern today is over the quality of the exhaust, particularly focused by the excessive emission like carbon monoxide CO!, nitrous oxide NOX!, and hydrocarbon products HC!, and the several known combinations thereof.
Thus it is the concern over oxygen starved or incomplete reactions that is at the center of current focus. These reactions, in a typical internal combustion engine, depend on two effects, one determined by the air volume delivered and the second by the breakdown potential across the terminals of a spark plug. Of further significance, however, is the current practice of feeding airborne oxygen into the exhaust stream as a technique for reducing the unwanted emission of unburnt combustion reagents. Like the combustion process itself, these reagents in the exhaust stream benefit from promoted oxidation.
Combustion of exhaust gases or fuel in any closed cavity involves several combined effects. A correct balance of reagents needs to exist in the chamber, mixed with sufficient vigor to produce full combustion within the time interval defined by the gas exchange, otherwise referred to as flame front propagation, that is reliably ignited. Of these effects the latter two depend greatly on the state of ionization of the mixed gases, and pre-ionizing the air stream improves both these effects.
More importantly, ionozing the oxygen portion of the air stream results in ozone products O3!, increasing the mass density of the oxygen in the stream. Thus in limited physics ozone will increase the mass of oxygen available for combustion. Thus ionization of the intake air obtains a variety of desired effects, and convenient ionization techniques are extensively sought. It is one such technique that is disclosed herein.